President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Shehu Gusau, has lost his bid to become one of world athletics body IAAF vice presidents.
This is as the incumbent president Sebastian Lord Coe was re-elected unopposed for a second term at the 52nd IAAF congress in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday.
During the election, all 203 voting members of Congress voted for Coe.
Gusau lost to Ximena Restrepo, Sergey Bubka, Geoffrey Gardner and Nawaf Bin Mohammed Al Saud, who were elected vice presidents.
Gusau contested against 12 other candidates, among whom were Olympians and national record holders in their countries.
Restrepo, the 1992 Olympic 400m bronze medallist from Colombia, became the first woman to serve as an IAAF Vice President.
Her emergence was part of the widespread reforms adopted by the IAAF Congress at the end of 2016, where the body added minimum gender targets into its constitution to establish parity at all levels in the sport’s governance.
Among the board members elected by the congress are Hiroshi Yokokawa (Japan), Antti Pihlakoski (Finland), Anna Riccardi (Italy), Nan Wang (China), AdilleSumariwalla (India), Nawal El Moutawakel (Morocco) and Abby Hoffman (Canada).
Others are Sylvia Barlag (Holland), Alberto Juantorena (Cuba), Willie Banks (USA), Raul Chapado (Spain), Dobromir Karamarinov (Bulgaria) and Beatrice Ayikoru (Uganda).
